Adored By All
by NormanWhitesmith
Summary: Luigi is tired of being second fiddle and wants desperately to be respected. After meeting a wizard who gave him a potion that she promised would make him "adored by all". Luigi drinks it, but gets a little more than he bargained for: he gets turned into an infant. When Mario and the two princesses suddenly get kidnapped, it's up to Luigi and a certain Star Sprite to save them.
1. Chapter 1: Promised Fame

_Norman Whitesmith here bringing you a random short story I thought of. Everything else I'm writing right now is very dark and brooding, so I came up with a light hearted story idea and decided to write it to give me a small break! This is a short story that will be about 3-5 chapters long. Enjoy! Without further ado, chapter one._

Chapter 1: Promised Fame

"Luigi, get your butt over here!" yelled Starlow, her face contorted with disappointment, "The threat's gone thanks to Mario and you still can't be bothered to help out. I don't know why you got to be such a baby. After all, you're about as much use as one!"

Luigi crawled out of his hiding spot behind Bowser's throne, still shaking in terror. Bowser had kidnapped the princess again (big surprise there.) and Starlow the star sprite had decided to tag along on the rescue mission this time. Luigi wasn't really as terrified of Bowser as he was of Starlow. Despite literally being a floating yellow orb that was about useless in fighting, her snappy words could still scathe the toughest armor. Of course all of these snappy words ever seemed to be directed at Luigi and nobody else. Even Mario didn't seem to care about the constant stream of insults coming from Starlow, dismissing them as simply playful banter. Starlow continued to stare at Luigi disappointedly as Mario fetched the princess from her room in the castle (she was kidnapped way too much if she gets her own room). Luigi couldn't have helped that he snapped under the pressure when Bowser confronted them, not to mention Starlow's watchful gaze scanning him for the slightest mistake wasn't helping with the pressure.

Bowser didn't really bat an eye when Luigi ran and dove behind his throne, which was already packed nicely with home baked evil-flavored cookies and a blanket. After all, Luigi was back there way too much as well and he wasn't much of a threat, Bowser decided, so why not? Mario finally came back holding the princess bridal style, with a big grin on his face and his cheeks flushed red. It's clear that he was rewarded with a kiss on the cheek, and Luigi could almost see hearts rising from Mario's head. The heroes then set off for the castle after a moment of making sure everyone was okay, Peach luckily not sustaining any injuries as she had wizened up and brought helmets and other protective gear for any kidnappings so she wasn't knocked around too much. Did I mention that the kidnapping scenario happens way too often? The heroes finally arrived at the Toad Town square after traveling past the various Koopa Troop members rebuilding the forts for the next kidnappings, some of the Koopas high-fiving Mario for another good formidable fight. The Toads rejoiced when they saw Mario bringing back the princess.

"Three cheers to Mario for saving our benevolent ruler once again!" called out one toad as the others cheered.

"And another three cheers for Starlow for helping!" cried a different Toad and cheers rang out once more.

"And a final three cheers for our well loved ruler, Princess Peach!" The square erupted in a loud volcano of cheers for the final time before all the toads went back to doing their business. Luigi of course noticed when the toads forgot about him once again and a strong feeling of unimportance washed over him like a wave at high tide. It was undeniable that he was cowardly in the final battle and ran from the fight, but he had been a very big help up to that point to where even Starlow kept her mouth shut for most of the journey other than the occasional insults to Luigi's taste in color or any other thing that didn't matter. Why couldn't he get a break for once and maybe get some credit?

"Hey Luigi," Mario said as he walked over to Luigi, snapping him out of his thoughts, "The Princess and I are heading back to the castle and I'll be home later tonight. You can make dinner and don't have to wait up for me, okay? I love you, little bro."

Mario gave Luigi a small peck on the cheek before walking off with the princess. Luigi knew that Mario didn't mean to take all the credit and valued Luigi, but it still hurt nonetheless when it happened. Luigi decided to walk around the square and see if there was perhaps anything new. It was a warm sunny day and the air carried the scent of new life and happy beginnings. It was a perfect day for toad mothers to bring their bouncing children to the square. Luigi couldn't help but think of how easy the toad children had it with nothing to worry about other than making their report cards look alright. They didn't really have any expectations that they had to live up to and most of all, they couldn't really let anybody down too badly with their youth as their cure-all excuse. Luigi was so busy watching that he collided head on with a cloaked figure and both were sent to the cobblestone floor in a matter of seconds.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" Luigi cried as he scrambled to help the hooded figure to their feet.

"Oh-ho, no problem my friend!" said the hooded figure in a friendly voice, "My name is Iam Madge Jick, and I'm absolutely pleased to make your acquaintance! Luigi, is it?" asked Iam as she began heartily shaking Luigi's arm until it almost dislocated. At least this lady gets points for enthusiasm.

"Why yes it is. Pleased to make your acquaintance as well!"

"I'm glad to meet somebody as friendly as you! I moved here fairly recently and opened up a potions shop, but nobody seems to want to come in. I appear to be scaring people away with my… what do they call it? 'Murderously happy personality', I believe it was, whatever that means. I'm so amazed that I get to meet one of the legendary heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom! Though I don't get why they completely ignored you when you returned with the others. What was that about?"

"Oh, they just typically forget about me. For whatever reason nobody seems to like me all that much and I'm just left out."

Iam began nodding her head furiously and let out a happy laugh.

"I can actually help with that! Follow me back to my shop!" said the eccentric shop keeper as she dragged Luigi away without giving him a chance to react.

Soon the duo arrived at a small tent next to the tea stand and the woman quickly dragged Luigi inside. Luigi was absolutely amazed at the array of bottles filled with mysterious fluids that were all colors of the rainbow. Iam quickly rummaged through her shelf at the back of the store before holding up a flask of green liquid that was corked closed and had a large tag sticking off of it that read "to be Adored By All". Iam quickly shoved the bottle into Luigi's hands.

"If you drink that, you'll be adored by everybody! Though it does take awhile to go into effect. You can have it for free since you're my first customer! Everyone else was literally screaming at me 'stop or I'll call the police'. You were literally the first one to go limp and let me take you. Yay!"

Luigi stared at the bottle in his hands. Was this truly the key to fixing his problem? Crazy potion lady aside, Luigi had a good feeling that this might work. But he'd have to think about it first. Luigi thanked Iam and promised to visit her sometime in the future and left, bottle in hand. ' _should I use this?_ ' Luigi asked himself, ' _Can I trust the psychotic, but somewhat likable potion lady?'_

Luigi was lost in thought again and didn't notice the group of toads in front of him until he almost tripped over the one in front.

"Watch it, spaz," spat the leader, staring angrily at Luigi until he noticed the bottle in the hand of Luigi with the tag "to be Adored By All" and started to laugh, "The green shadow loser actually resorted to magic to make himself better! That's an all time low, even for a waste of space like you!"

Luigi felt the tears gather in his eyes as his breathing got uneven.

"Oh, the baby is going to cry now? Boo hoo, loser! How about you try this all so powerful potion and show us how adored you're going to be? Go on loser, try it."

The toad snatched the bottle out of Luigi's hands before he could respond and began tossing back and forth between him and his cronies.

"Too slow, second fiddle," laughed the toad as angry tears started to stream out of Luigi's eyes. He could only handle so much for one day and the limit was far broken. Luigi reached out with surprising speed and snatched the bottle out of the hands of a toad who was somewhat shocked.

"FINE!" shouted Luigi as he uncorked the bottle with one hand and drained the contents in record time, somewhat gagging at the taste of old gym socks… don't even ask how Luigi knew what that tasted like.

The toads stared at Luigi for a couple of seconds before bursting into laughter once again.

"This is pathetic! How about you go home now before you embarrass yourself further, alright wimp?"

Luigi dropped the bottle in the grass and ran off crying, attracting the attention of many around him and causing them to point and laugh at the full grown man making a fool of himself. Luigi didn't stop until he reached his and Mario's house and slammed the door shut. Luigi leaned up against the door and slid down. It wasn't fair that everyone could mistreat him. At least back in Brooklyn he was just a nobody like everyone else and was left alone.

Luigi finally pulled himself off the ground and looked in the mirror to see if the potion did anything. Nothing. Just plain old him staring back at him just like every day. Luigi went through the rest of the day in a fog, for the first hour being home rushing and checking the mirror to see if he had any changes every three minutes. Still nothing. Maybe the potion was a hoax and the lady was mistaken, as Luigi couldn't bring himself to believe that she'd lie to him on purpose. Luigi eventually went to bed and had fitful dreams of longing, the sound of Mario going to his bed as silently as possible slightly penetrating Luigi's dreams.

XxX

The ringing of his alarm woke Luigi up from his sleep. Luigi yawned and stretched before getting up, completely forgetting the events of the previous day. Luigi got to the mirror to shave before realizing he didn't have any stubble to shave. Luigi looked himself over in the mirror, confused as to why he didn't have the patch of stubble that faithfully showed up everyday. As Luigi continued to look, he realized that something seemed a bit… off, yet it wasn't obvious enough to place it. Suddenly Luigi got it. Throughout his late teenage to adult years, Luigi had always had a boyish quality to his face that almost made him look childish, but it was the mustache that had proved his manhood. About when Luigi hit his twentieth birthday his features had hardened up a bit, leaving Luigi looking a bit more manly, yet still having undeniably boyish features. It was almost as if his features had softened up overnight back to the appearance he had about when he was 19, though the difference wasn't too noticeable. Luigi had to go into town to ask Iam about this. He didn't see how looking slightly younger, although he already looked pretty young, could make anybody adore him any more.

Luigi quickly pulled on his signature clothes and put on his lucky green hat and was out the door, careful not to wake Mario who was still snoring rather loudly. Luigi began down the path on this fairly cool morning, admiring the sunlight that kissed the path that lead to Toad Town with love. The trees and bushes lining the path seemed to sway their welcome to the traveler as he continued on, nose up in the air to smell the new growing flowers of spring. The air around Luigi seemed to grow warmer to an optimal heat and Luigi appreciated every second. Until a tingling feeling started all over his body that showed the heat wasn't natural.

"Wha…" Luigi sputtered out before falling into one of the nearby bushes as his legs suddenly gave out, refusing to carry his weight any longer. Luigi tried to call out for help, but found that his voice refused to work. Luigi couldn't find the strength to move at all and watched helplessly as his body sank deeper into the bush and he could do nothing about it. Did the potion do this? Luigi hoped and prayed that somebody would find him, but as he sank deeper into the rather large bush, he knew that unless someone spotted his shoe that was blending in with the dirt path, he would have to hope that he woke up again and that the potion wasn't actually poisonous and killing him. Luigi couldn't hold on to consciousness anymore and darkness closed around him like velvet curtains as the unnatural warmth lulled him off to sleep.

 _And that is that. I will continue this later and I'd also like to add that the writing will improve next chapter too. This is intended to be a more light hearted story and I hope you all enjoy it! To explain the Mario rescuing situation, it's more along the lines of that it happens so often that everyone "good" and "bad" recognize it as their jobs and don't even mind when they have the other side kicks their butts thoroughly, as they see it as life. The koopa high-fiving Mario sort of reminds me way back in the day when I learned about WWII and how some of the opposing sides would play soccer or something with each other when they don't have commands to fight each other. I love how things like that show that humanity still exists in the midst of horrible things. Another thing is that Iam isn't an OC, but rather a character I created specifically for fitting the role of potion master person… thingy. Also, I created her name Iam Madge Jick to sound like "I am magic". But this is just a bit of fluff that I decided to write. The cover was drawn by me again and I'm fairly glad with how it turned out. Be sure to criticize my work and tell me how to improve. I understand that this is a bit choppy, but I intend to come and fix this later. Thank you for reading, and until next time, Norm out. And don't forget that swords don't make great letter openers._


	2. Chapter 2: Wrong Assumptions

_Norman Whitesmith is back again to bring you chapter two of the story that nobody cares about! Enjoy and please leave a review (I'm looking at you Jacob. You know who you are) and criticize my work so I can improve! Without further ado, Chapter two._

Chapter 2: Wrong Assumption

Daisy always enjoyed taking walks, whether it be the long ones through a forest or a short one across the beaches of her home kingdom Sarassaland. She loved how the breezes would always whip through her hair and lightly tussle it like a loving father to his son. Every type of weather fascinated Daisy as each brought new experiences and livened up her every day. As a child, Daisy never was allowed outside other than the occasional business trips and the small court yard that seemed to close in on her further every day, which was annoying to a whole new level. Daisy always begged to be let to go on walks, but was always declined until her 16th birthday where her parents reluctantly let her out on a walk under heavy guard. Daisy absolutely loved it and found that she had a passion for travel and went on walks nearly every day.

Daisy was walking this time because she had a meeting to attend to at Princess Peach's castle and she decided to walk instead of ride in the royal limo. It wasn't too long of a distance since the family stayed in the outskirts of the kingdom for the night, so Daisy was allowed to walk by herself this time, as the crime rate was almost zero. She was enjoying her walk like always when she suddenly heard a peculiar sound. It was a high pitched wail coming from behind a bush on the side of the road. Daisy of course wasn't sure she heard it at first, but after waiting a second, the wailing sounded again. It sounded like it was coming from a baby of sorts. Daisy quickly tracked down which bush it was coming from behind and peered over the top. The sound was coming from a human six month old baby. This was confusing for many reasons, the top reasons being that collectively there were less than twenty humans in the entire known world, the second being that typically a human's birth would be wide celebrated, as they are rare enough and humans went on to do great things in the world.

Daisy involuntarily gasped which caught the attention of the small child, whose head instantly whipped to the side and caught a glimpse of Daisy. A flash of what only could be described as fear passed the baby's face as it tried to get away, but getting caught in the mud that covered the swampy ground of the small clearing and letting out another pitiful wail as it accidentally got a small cut from a twig hidden under the surface of the mud. The baby was completely naked, a boy Daisy saw, and was clearly not going to make it on his own much longer. Daisy quickly made her way over to the small thing and picked him up, not even caring how much mud she was getting all over her royal outfit. The baby struggled ferociously for a child of his age and was babbling furiously in gibberish that seemed somewhat close to English, as if he were trying to say something. Finally the baby settled down and gave up and just stared up at Daisy, which Daisy began to inspect him from head to toe.

First off, how did this child get abandoned in the first place? There were no obvious defects with him, as twisted as it would sound for someone to abandon their kid because of a defect. His sparkling blue eyes that were surprisingly bright for his age was scanning Daisy's face, conveying almost a type of intelligence. He had a head full of nice and thick dark ebony brown hair that turned up to four downy soft cowlicks on his forehead. The child wasn't wearing any clothing or a diaper and now his bottom half from the hips down was covered in mud. This child looked familiar even though she was sure she never saw him in her life. Daisy noticed the small scratch that was oozing out a small amount of blood. Even if there wasn't too much blood coming out, it would be a good idea to get him to town and cleaned up as fast as possible.

"Hey little guy!" Daisy said in a high pitched voice, that the baby slightly cringed at before she decided to talk in her regular voice, "Let's get you to town and fixed up, you adorable thing! I'll take care of you!"

Was it just her or did the baby roll his eyes?

XxX

Luigi was sleeping comfortably wrapped up in his blankets when he woke up. Something was definitely wrong as he noticed the leaf shaped shadows dappling his green blanket. Also, his green blanket wasn't this thin, as too much light was shining through. What was going on? Luigi tried to move, but his body didn't want to respond too well. Luigi finally kicked his legs enough and he felt himself slide forward in his blanket and slip out an opening, the cold ground freezing him to the core as he slid out. Luigi stared up at trees that were above him. Where was he? What happened? Luigi attempted to sit up, but found that he couldn't and that his body refused to obey. Luigi tried to move his arm, but found that it was barely responding and shaking profusely. Luigi brought his hand into view, but found himself staring at a small and chubby hand instead of his own. Luigi tried to move his fingers, but found the small hand in his view doing the same. That was his hand. Luigi let out a small shriek that was too high pitched to be normal. He noticed a small mud puddle nearby and desperately tried to scrabble himself towards it to see his reflection.

As Luigi slowly made his way to the nearby puddle, he remembered everything that had happened beforehand. The potion must have done this, Luigi realized. But what exactly did it do? Luigi soon got his answer when he propped himself up slightly with his now chubby arms and hands and looked at his reflection. A baby's face stared back at him. Now if anybody in the world were in this situation, it would be very confusing and terrifying, and Luigi was no exception to this. Luigi felt his lower lip twitch as his eyes filled up with tears, and he involuntarily began to cry very loudly. All of the air left Luigi's lungs as he let out his cry and he very quickly needed to stop and "refill". As soon as he began his second cry, he heard a gasp from behind him that caused him to whip his head around to see the source. It was Daisy, the woman he had a crush on and wanted to hopefully date in the future. Crud.

' _She can't see me like this! Not to mention I'm completely in the nude!_ ' Luigi thought to himself as he tried desperately to crawl through the mud puddle to escape, though unfortunately his chubby legs weren't going to get him very far as he couldn't even crawl yet. He desperately tried to wiggle away, but it was to no avail as he scratched his leg on a twig hidden in the mud and let out a small wail before continuing on. But it was all fruitless as Daisy quickly walked over and picked him up and cradled him in her arms. Luigi tried desperately to wiggle free and say " _Daisy, it's me! Luigi!_ ", but all that came out of Luigi's mouth was nonsense babbling and it seemed to be amusing the princess slightly. Luigi knew there was no escape pretty soon and decided to calm down and wait and see what happened. Daisy was clearly looking him over and Luigi watched the thoughtfulness wash over her face. She was incredibly beautiful.

"Hey little guy!" said Daisy in a voice so high pitched that it made him flinch, before an apologetic look crossed her face and she continued in her normal voice, much to Luigi's relief, "Let's get you to town and fixed up, you adorable thing! I'll take care of you!"

Luigi rolled his eyes. This was probably the weirdest thing that ever happened to him. He had to get back to Iam and fast before he gets put in the orphanage or something.

XxX

"Here you go, princess!" said a cheery clerk at the store as he handed Daisy a diaper and some wipes, as well as a tiny Band-Aid, "I'm glad you decided to pick up this poor fellow. It's been years since I've seen a human child! There's a changing room in the back that you can use to clean him up. Also, how far did you say you walked with him?"

"About two miles."

"Well that's a record! I'm surprised the kid didn't pee on you, considering how young he is!"

Was it just Daisy or did the baby's face flush red for a second?

"Well thank you sir for your kindness," said Daisy as she held the child in one arm and pulled out a small coin purse with her free hand, "How much do I owe you?"

"Considering that this was for such a noble cause, not a thing!" said the clerk as he guided Daisy to the small room to clean up the child.

Daisy thanked the clerk, got to the room, and closed the door and held up the package of wipes, ready to clean the baby that lay in front of her or get really dirty trying. Luigi couldn't help but stare up at the princess helplessly as she looked down at him with determination painting her face. Daisy grabbed out a wipe and started gently scrubbing every square inch of Luigi clean. Luigi let out a small shriek from the coldness of the wipe, but Daisy only responded to the child's noise with a smile as she continued to wipe down the poor thing. Pretty soon, Luigi was squeaky clean and in a crisp new diaper. This was probably the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to him, but at least nobody knew it was him. Daisy almost laughed at the seemingly mortified expression on the baby's face before scooping him up and taking her leave from the store.

The town clock chimed noon as the two walked through Toad Town and the regular bustle of the town went on as normal. Normal, that is, until one toad saw Daisy holding the infant and got everyone else's attention. Soon all streets and homes were deserted as every toad in a five mile radius crowded around to see the human child that stared back at them with bright blue eyes. Luigi felt over crowded as he never got this much attention before and felt the tears build up in his eyes before letting out an ear-splitting cry. Daisy quickly shooed everyone away politely and brought Luigi up to her shoulder and began patting him on the back. Luigi smiled as he almost immediately stopped crying and felt tiredness closing in on him. He tried to resist sleep, which didn't go unnoticed by Daisy who giggled a little at the tired infant trying to stay awake, but ultimately it was a losing battle as Luigi snoozed off in her arms, making cooing noises as he slept.

Daisy gave a small smile at the infant that was slumped over in her arms, but then she noticed something a bit odd. There was a small birthmark in the shape of a star on the infant's back. But then Daisy realized that it wasn't good to have an infant slumped over in their sleep without their head raised, so she quickly shuffled the baby to her shoulder and couldn't help but smile even more when the infant instinctively snuggled closer to her bosom for warmth in his sleep. Daisy very carefully and steadily made her way to the castle, careful not to disturb the small child resting on her. He was so cute and seemed almost familiar, but Daisy just couldn't place it if he was reminding her of anyone. Daisy arrived at the castle after five minutes and breathed a small sigh of relief that she didn't wake the child, but that changed in five milliseconds as Toadsworth ran out and yelled at her for being thirty minutes late. Toadsworth immediately realized his mistake when he noticed the infant in Daisy's arms that stirred and began to cry loudly.

Baby or not, Luigi hated being woken from his naps. After much coaxing from both Toadsworth and Daisy, Luigi finally calmed down and stared at them silently.

"Where in the blazes did you find a human child?" asked Toadsworth, putting together that Daisy must have traveled slow for the little guy's sake and it wasn't entirely her fault, "Oh, and before I forget, your parents decided to leave and let you experience your first meeting alone. They expect a full comprehensive report of what happened when you get on the plane back home."

"Oh, they did?" asked Daisy, surprised that her over protective parents decided to sit this meeting out, "Well anyways, I found this little fellow naked on the side of the road. It appears he's been abandoned for whatever sick reason that a parent wouldn't want to take care of their child. And don't worry about telling my parents, I'll let them know."

"Very well, Daisy. But it confounds me that someone would even abandon such a sweet and adorable little guy like this. That isn't like anybody in this kingdom."

"I know, but it happened and I'm going to take care of him now!"

Daisy then went inside the castle carrying the infant that seemed to be grabbing at her brooch. In actuality, Luigi's now smooth gums were bothering him and the brooch looked soothing to chew on and it would help. Daisy noticed the tiny and chubby hand trying to grab the brooch and removed it and gave it to the infant. Luigi happily grabbed it and started chewing on it, relieved at how much the cold was relieving the small amount of pain in his mouth.

"Oh my stars, is that what I think it is?" asked a familiar voice as Princess Peach stepped into view and beheld Daisy covered in mud while holding human offspring that was gnawing on her brooch, "Who's the father?"

Daisy blushed a deep red for a second, which caused Luigi to let out a small chortle, before recomposing herself and answering.

"I have no idea. I found the poor little tyke abandoned on the side of the road naked and covered in mud. I picked him up and decided to bring him here so I can attend the meeting before I head home with him and decide what to do next."

"Well, we do have about a hour before the meeting, so want to have a little fun with the baby?"

"That sounds absolutely perfect!"

The princesses were so busy chatting like school girls that they didn't notice Luigi shaking his head and trying desperately to say no. Hanging out with them would probably start with more beauty products than humanly healthy, and end in the emergency room. Unfortunately for Luigi, he didn't have a choice as the two whisked him away to a room where they were going to have some "fun". When the door opened, Luigi saw the bright pink nursery walls and realized that this must have been where the princess herself grew up. Luigi looked on amazed at all the toys that were now giant to him and suddenly looked a lot more appealing.

"I think to start off, we need to give this little guy some clothing!" stated Peach as she went over to the closet off to the side.

"I can't agree more!" said Daisy as she set Luigi on top of the plush carpet floor, before noticing that he had problems sitting up and laid him stomach down.

Peach began rummaging through the closet a bit before pulling out a pink dress.

"Well, I couldn't find any boy's clothing, but I do have this that will fit him. It's still better than him sitting there in nothing but a diaper. Besides, he's a baby so he shouldn't care."

But in fact, Luigi _did_ care. He cared a lot. Full humiliation set in when he sat in the puffed up pink dress on the ground while having a sufficient pouting expression on his face. If he did manage to change back, there will be blood-shed for this. That was, until Peach waved a bright blue pacifier in front of Luigi's face to which he latched on eagerly and began sucking away at it.

"Wow, he almost looked angry there until you gave him that pacifier." Daisy commented as she watched the baby wiggle forward on the ground towards some type of toy off in the far distance for him.

"Well, I'm sure they call it a 'pacifier' for a reason. He's such a quiet little guy, though."

"He was babbling pretty furiously when I first picked him up and he tried to squirm out of my arms, but then he gave up and went limp and stayed quiet other than the times he cried."

"Does he have a name yet?"

"He probably did with whoever abandoned him, but not now. I'll probably give him a name when I bring him back to Sarassaland. For now we could probably call him 'boy' or something."

"Doesn't that sound like a dog?"

"He's a baby, so he probably doesn't care."

Luigi heard this from his spot that was about halfway to his destination of a ball and shot a dirty look at Daisy.

"Awww!" said Peach as she almost melted with adorable overload, "Look at how adorable he is trying to give you a death glare! It's almost as if he could understand what we are saying! Luigi better look out, because this little guy might just take his title for the death glare when he grows up!"

Luigi felt his stomach growl and knew that the princesses heard it when they were staring at him.

Both princesses were almost tripping over themselves as they rushed over to Luigi and bombarded him with "are you hungry?" and other rhetorical questions that were very obviously "yes".

"Well, I better go down to the kitchen and get something for this little guy to eat! Also, Mario is here, so I better tell him about the child. I bet he would want to hold him for a bit, so I'll send him up! Take care of 'boy'," said Peach as she rushed out the door to accommodate the infant.

Daisy just watched Luigi in silence as he finally made it over to the ball he wanted and began to hug it and suck on it. As noisy and messy and expensive as babies could be, they were truly a gift, so why would anybody abandon him to die? He clearly wasn't going to make it on his own for much longer and he was also the most adorable thing she had ever seen, so why? Daisy's thoughts were cut short as Peach entered the room holding a can of pea baby food and a spoon.

"Okay, I got some stuff! Unfortunately, I have to prepare some for, so I have to leave. You can play with him up here until the meeting and Mario is going to be up in a few minutes, so he's going to help. Just try to feed this to him without sticking the spoon too far into his mouth."

Peach very quickly pulled out a feeding chair from the wall and put it next to Daisy before shoving the can and spoon into her hand and promptly exiting. Daisy pulled Luigi away from his ball and stuck him in the feeding chair. Luigi absolutely hated peas, adult or baby and turned his head to the side and made a "humph" sound.

" _No thank you, I really hate peas,_ " Luigi babbled out, but to no avail as Daisy bumped the spoon against the side of his face. She was going to make him eat it, if it meant shoving it down his throat. But Luigi was one heck of a fighter.

XxX

Mario didn't know what to think when he heard that Daisy found an abandoned human baby boy on the side of the road. He already had his own problems as Luigi disappeared from their house earlier on in the morning. Mario was close to reporting it, but something stopped him. Almost as if something was telling him that Luigi was nearby and if he waited that he would find him. Mario decided to wait a few days before calling in Luigi, praying that he would turn up before then. Mario needed something to take his mind off his missing twin brother. As Mario walked up the stairs towards the nursery, he suddenly heard a cacophony of noises from a baby's angry shrieking, to an exasperated "Why won't you eat your peas? Please, just one bite."

' _Oh God, what am I getting into?_ ' thought Mario as he entered the room.

The scene looked about as horrible as it sounded outside, with peas splattered all over Daisy with a small drip of some on the ceiling falling down on her head, however that got up there. The baby looked the worse by far with peas making his dark brown hair that was a few shades darker than Mario's, stand on end, and peas were covering the pink dress he was wearing, not to mention that the peas were spread up and down the infant's arms. Mario could have sworn he saw a look of fear and surprise pass the infant's face as he looked at him.

Luigi looked up at his older twin brother, not quite sure if twin applied anymore. Mario came over to him with a huge smile on his face.

"Say hello to your Uncle Mario!" he said, as he extended a finger out for Luigi to grab. Luigi grabbed it, leaving some of the peas on it, surprised at how truly tiny his hand was in comparison to Mario's index finger. Luigi looked directly into Mario's eyes, which had always gave away emotion if you knew how to read it, and saw that Mario was suspicious of something, and was scanning Luigi's face and looking for secrets. That quickly melted away as Mario began laughing a hearty laugh.

"You seriously put him in a pink dress?" Mario asked as tears started streaming down his face from how hard he was laughing.

"Yeah, it was better than him just sitting there in his diaper and being cold." replied Daisy defensively as she tried to give the infant a spoon of peas, only for it to be slapped away with the infant's free hand. The peas made a good splatter on the wall and a more than audible groan from Daisy.

"He just won't eat his peas even though he's clearly hungry."

Mario picked up Luigi from the chair carefully.

"I'll tell you what. I'll give the kid a bath, while you clean up the room. Then when you're done cleaning, make a bottle of milk up, as I'm sure he'll eat that. Alright?"

"Alright, I'll start cleaning." said Daisy begrudgingly as she searched for the infant friendly cleaning wipes.

Mario sat down on the ground and put Luigi in his lap facing away from him and began to pull off the pink pea covered dress, careful not to harm the baby. About when the dress was halfway up, exposing his back, Mario seemed to pause for a second before completing the removal of the dress. Mario held Luigi close to him in one arm as he began to get up and head for the door, but of course popping the blue pacifier in Luigi's mouth. As Mario was exiting the room with Luigi, he turned his head back and said to Daisy, "If you're ever feeding him something other than milk again, try blending up mushrooms with peaches. I'm sure he'll like that."

Luigi's heart almost skipped a beat. That was the one odd food combination that he loved the most, but nobody else seemed to know about. Mario then silently closed the door behind him and began to walk down the hall. As he walked, he looked down at the infant in the arms and gave a little smile.

"Hi, Luigi," he said.

 _And that was the next chapter! I hope you liked it! I guess the wizard wasn't really lying when she said "adored by all", but as the description for this says, Luigi got more than he was bargaining for. Also, Luigi's mind is still intact after changing, it's just he gained a few new "instincts" (and by instincts, I mean detrimental habits that will probably bite him in the butt later.). Also, guest reviewer TheDarkenedLuigi requested a story for me to write, and I'll do it. Just give me time to think of the details before I start writing it. I had to look up what a six month old could do in order to write this accurately, regardless of having to take care of my little siblings a lot awhile ago. There's about an 11 year age difference between me and my sister and a 13 year age difference between me and my brother, so I had to take care of them a lot. And that meant being smeared in baby food and all the like as my little siblings didn't like me and they still don't like me. Darn kids. There were times that I just put my little brother in my little sister's clothing because I was too lazy to find his clothes in the giant pile in their room. Poor Luigi. Starlow is going to be making another entrance soon in the next chapter, so that's going to be fun to write. Also, happy brother's day! That's not a real holiday, but it is in the promotion that Nintendo sent me, so why not! Please criticize my work so I can improve, and I enjoy hearing speculation and other things of the like, so please feel free to say something. I have nothing else to say, so until next time, Norm out. And don't forget to never take potions from strange wizards. You have no idea how many times that nugget of advice has saved my hide._


	3. Chapter 3: Babysitting Lou

_Norman Whitesmith back again for another chapter of Adored By All. Now is where the story really picks up pace. I'm guessing that there's going to be about two more chapters after this one, so stay tuned. I really enjoy reviews, so please don't hesitate to leave one and criticize my work. Let's get this show on the road. Without further ado, ladies and gents, Chapter three._

Chapter 3: Babysitting Lou

Luigi froze. Did Mario just call him by his name? But nobody knew he was like this! Luigi didn't realize that he made a whimper and let his pacifier fall from his mouth. Mario quickly shifted Luigi to one of his shoulders and caught the pacifier before it hit the floor. Mario quickly popped it back into Luigi's mouth.

"Better not drop that, little bro," said Mario good humouredly as he brought Luigi to a more comfortable position in his arms, "And you respond to your name, too! You really thought that your twin brother who has been looking at your face nearly every day of his life wouldn't recognize you? As if! But we are going to have to have a little talk while I give you a bath."

"Maw… ih… oh," whimpered Luigi, tears filling his eyes as he struggled to form coherent words.

"Oh? Don't cry, Luigi!" Mario brought Luigi to his shoulder once again and pat his back, "It's okay. Don't be afraid! Let's just get you into the bath, alright?"

Mario quickly found a toad staff member and asked for an infant bath. The toad quickly and happily obliged after cooing at Luigi and came back with the diamond studded object and directed them to a private and empty sink they could use.

"What is with rich people and putting diamonds on everything, I'll never know," chuckled Mario as he looked down at Luigi, "Probably some type of weird stereotype that some psycho came up with."

Luigi giggled a little and gave Mario a gum filled smile, luckily without dropping his pacifier, which caused Mario's small grin to blossom into a full on smile.

"You have no idea just how adorable you are, do you?" asked Mario as he poked Luigi's stomach lightly, which caused another giggle from the ticklish Luigi.

' _wait,'_ thought Luigi, ' _consistently everyone has been calling me adorable. So the wizard didn't lie to me or mess up on the potion! But how do I undo this? But do I even want to undo this? Everyone loves me and pays attention to me and also believes that I'm destined for greatness to top it all off. Maybe this isn't so bad. Other than being unable to move very well, which I believe is because an infant's brain isn't 'fine tuned to life' yet and time fixes that, this isn't that bad at all.'_

Mario looked at the expression of deep thought stiffening up Luigi's round and chubby face, wondering what in the world the infant was thinking about. It was relieving that Luigi was found, but how in the world did this happen? The infant laying in his arms was supposed to be his twin brother, as if "twin" even applied anymore. Mario almost wished that he was a baby himself so he could ask Luigi what in tarnation happened and get an answer he could understand, but that was preposterous and even if the opportunity presented itself, Mario wouldn't take it. Mario didn't even notice that he was at the room he was directed to until he nailed the top of his head on the door as he stooped over Luigi, who had decided to shove his entire fist in his mouth for some sort of weird reason, pacifier clenched in his other fist. Such a charming child

Mario quickly opened the door and let himself into a nice and modern room with a nice stainless steel utility sink. Mario set Luigi on the nearby counter, but after realizing he couldn't sit up on his own, leaned Luigi against the corner of the wall and ordered him to stay put, to which Luigi responded with a "Ba!", and Mario set up the bath and filled it with the perfect temperature water as well as some of the special baby soap that the toad also gave him along with the bath. Mario quickly took off Luigi's diaper (which was clean luckily), and set him in the bath water. Luigi let out a sigh at the perfect temperature of the water, but squealed in protest when Mario took off his gloves and started rubbing soap into his hair.

"Oh come on, Luigi! When I said I'd be giving you a bath, I meant it! Besides, we need to get these peas out of your hair," said Mario as he gently massaged the soap into Luigi's hair, careful not to touch the soft spot on Luigi's head, "Besides _little_ brother, it's not like you can clean yourself. But at least I'm the taller one now."

Luigi began to babble angrily, as his height was the one thing he was proud of and outdid Mario in without a doubt, and if the babbles were translated it would probably come out as "Just wait until I grow up again and kick your butt." Mario laughed before a look of seriousness came over his facial features.

"But in all seriousness, I have no idea how you did this to yourself and I really suggest you undo it. You're absolutely helpless right now and would need somebody to take care of you for quite awhile. I didn't tell the princesses who you were, mainly because I can see you must have done this for a reason and I might as well let you make your own choices. But I implore you, please undo this and make yourself an adult again. If you stay like this, you can't live with me anymore, because the princess will get kidnapped again at a seemingly random time and I can't take proper care of you or look after you. Heck, this is embarrassing! Eventually people would notice adult you missing and how much you resemble him. Please little bro, come back to me."

Luigi felt tears fill his eyes and looked at Mario through his blurred vision and tried desperately to make his mouth work correctly to tell his brother everything, but it was no use, only gibberish came out, and Mario saw how much Luigi was trying. If there was one thing that Mario and Luigi could do, is if they tried hard enough, they could read each other's emotions accurately as well as get a vague idea of what they were thinking, and Mario hoped that the change in Luigi's facial structure didn't impair him from reading Luigi's emotions. Mario looked Luigi over and saw… Luigi didn't intend for this to happen. It was a complete accident. Although Mario couldn't see specifics, it was clear that this was beyond Luigi's control for the most part, although he did have some part in doing this to himself. Twin ESP. Gotta love it.

Mario finished up Luigi's bath, at a loss for what to do. He wasn't saying that he couldn't take care of Luigi to guilt trip him; he was actually serious. If a six month old that couldn't take care of themselves was left at home alone, how would they survive? Not to mention, what if he lost for once and never returned home? Luigi would just be a helpless sitting duck to either starvation or someone else to kidnap him. Mario pulled Luigi out of the bath and dried him off without a word and wrapped him up in a towel and was on his way after informing a toad that a mess needed to be cleaned up. Luigi was happily sucking on his pacifier and Mario was carrying him back to the nursery.

"So you're probably wondering how I knew it was you, huh?" Mario asked suddenly and Luigi looked up and gave a small nod.

"Well, first off as I had already said, I could recognize you when I first saw you, but the real dead ringer that convinced me was how much you hate peas. I of course checked for your birthmark just to be sure and of course it was there…" said Mario, trailing off in thoughts and nostalgia.

"You should probably apologize to Daisy if you ever get the chance again. It wasn't nice what you put her through. Then again, it's not like you could have told her that you didn't like peas. But still, if the opportunity ever presents itself," Mario started to ramble, which was boring Luigi incredibly.

Five seconds after finishing his ramble, Mario looked down to see a sleeping Luigi in his arms.

"Hey!" Mario protested to no one in particular that could hear him, "Is that the way to treat your Uncle Mario?"

Luigi continued to sleep despite Mario's requests to awaken so he could hear the rest of his ramble. Mario finally arrived at the nursery and opened the door. Mario was surprised to find how clean the room was and could almost see his reflection on the Snozzberry wallpaper that covered the room. Suddenly a yellow orb raced towards Mario out of nowhere, almost scaring the socks off of him.

"Hello yello!" said a familiar cheerful voice, as Starlow hovered in front of Mario, "I'm here to take care of the kid! Daisy told me that she needed to attend the meeting as well as you, so it'd be best if I took care of the baby."

"Oh! What a pleasant surprise! Sure, take good care of Lu-" Mario caught himself before he finished making his mistake.

"Hmm, I thought he didn't have a name."

"He doesn't necessarily, but I decided to call him Lou. It seems rather fitting, does it not?" asked Mario as he lifted up a flap of the blanket to reveal Luigi sleeping peacefully.

"Actually, it does seem to fit him a lot! Though I feel like I've seen him somewhere before, as impossible as that is."

Mario put Luigi down in a crib in the room and tipped his hat to Starlow.

"He's going to wake up eventually, and when he does he's going to need a bottle of milk made for him and a diaper put on, alright? I'll be back about halfway through the meeting"

"Can do!" said Starlow as she hovered near the sleeping Lou. He seemed so peaceful in his sleep. Starlow was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the pair of tiny arms reaching up for her until it was too late and she was locked in a surprisingly strong bear hug for an infant. Starlow managed to pivot a little and saw that he was still sleeping. She had to wait until he woke up to move.

"If you weren't so cute and small, you'd be getting the talking to of a lifetime right now," muttered Starlow to herself as she felt the infants mouth close in on her star, the infant still sleeping. A shriek escaped Starlow's lips as the infant bit down on her star, causing her extreme pain.

"Watch it, bub!" Screamed Starlow at the infant, whose eyes snapped awake instantly and focused on Starlow. The infant suddenly had a strong look of fear on his face when he looked at the Star Sprite. Starlow realized her mistake when his bottom lip started to tremble and his eyes started to fill up with tears. A very loud wailing soon filled the nursery as Luigi cried and Starlow tried to calm him down.

XxX

Luigi had finished his bath and went to sleep to the pointless ramblings of Mario, a combo greater than all. Luigi drifted through the darkness of his unconsciousness as he slept, happy that in his dreams that he had complete mobility again. Suddenly his dreams were interrupted with a glowing light penetrating his eye lids and making it into his dreams. The source of light seemed to be warm, so Luigi reached out to it and snuggled it close, enjoying the warmth it gave. He felt his mouth close around another source of heat, bringing even more joy to Luigi. It was all well and good until a yell shattered Luigi's good dream, bringing him into the nightmare of reality. An angry yellow Star Sprite hovered over him, looking like she wanted to murder him. Luigi felt even more fear rush his chest when he recognized the Star Sprite: It was Starlow; the same one that always tormented him. And now, he was way smaller and about as big as her, which meant that she seemed significantly bigger to him.

The familiar sensation of a beginning of a fit overcame Luigi and before he knew it, he was screaming for somebody, anybody, to save him from the murderous Star Sprite. Although he was crying, it was almost amusing to Luigi for him to see the Star Sprite trying so hard to cheer him up. This was going to be "fun".

 _And that is it. Does anybody else feel that this is absolutely perfect? Payback time seems to be nigh for Starlow. To be honest, I love Starlow, yet hate her glowing guts for being such a jerk to Luigi for no good reason other than him being an easy target. And if you don't recognize the Snozzberry reference, curses and shame upon your family's goat. Also, for those of you who weren't "lucky" enough to have younger siblings that you got to take care of, for awhile babies have a soft spot on their heads that don't have bone beneath them. It's to help the baby "make it through" when the mother is giving birth. All it does for me is make me extraordinarily paranoid when I'm holding young children because the soft spot is a direct line to the kid's brain and I don't want to mess them up by accidentally touching their soft spot too hard. And that, my friends, is why I'll never be a father. Bachelor Forever! And then there were the times that my siblings decided to latch onto my face and refuse to let go, just like little parasites! I have to say, every young person needs siblings a lot younger than them because that is the true birth control. You wouldn't want a kid for awhile after living with really young siblings. Also, my friend Paris is supposed to be reading this. You know the consequences if you don't read this, Paris. I don't know why I put death threats to my friends in my Authors notes, but I just do. I don't know who made me this way [God did and he probably hates me at this point]. I have nothing else to say, other than spay and neuter your pets, so Norm out! And remember to put sufficient amounts of death threats to your friends in literary works! I'm watching you Paris!_


	4. Chapter 4: Why Me?

_Norman Whitesmith here with another chapter of "Adored By All". Before we get started, there was something I didn't quite clarify in the last chapter. To start off, I'm trying to make the baby situation fairly accurate. As in, I'm trying to research and remember the features of a six month old. So when I said "an infant's brain isn't fine tuned to life", that is actually about true. Whenever anybody does anything, it sends a signal through their brain to do it via "pathways" through the "forest" of your brain. The more the path is traveled, the wider it becomes and it is "easier to travel" and you can be a master at doing something the more you do it and perfect it. That can also apply that if you are used to doing something wrong, you're going to continue doing it wrong, so try to do it right. If you, say, have never thrown a ball before, the brain has to create a new path. If we were to go with the forest metaphor, the brain would have to fight and hack and slash at all the bushes in the way in order to complete the new action. It'll be slow going learning to do the action at first, but the more you do it, the better and easier it becomes. That's why practicing is important. How this applies to infants is that they're still pretty new and the forest of their brain is pretty much untouched by actions. It takes awhile for them to gain complete and proper motor skills and have the ability to move their limbs well and correctly. I probably portrayed the six month motor abilities for Luigi as one for a much younger baby, but it works for plot line purposes and isn't too far off reality. But either way, that's the rather pointless science lesson of the day, kids! Without further ado, Chapter Four._

Chapter 4: Why Me?

Starlow may have never taken care of a baby before, but she had never fathomed that it would be this hard. It was almost as if the child held a deep-rooted grudge against her. At every turn, Lou, which was the name Mario had given the child, seemed to fight her tooth and nail… or is it gums and nubs? He seemed to refuse to keep his diaper on, he didn't want to be fed correctly, he kept crying and screaming angrily at her, and to top it all of, his facial expression seemed to convey a type of hate. Starlow couldn't deal with this. Just about everyone loved her due to her perkiness and she had never experienced such utter disdain towards her before. It was too much.

"Whyyyyy?" Starlow cried as she broke down on the ground, "Why do you hate me? What have I ever done?"

Suddenly, she felt tiny arms wrap around her and pull her into an embrace. It was Lou.

XxX

Luigi's fear of Starlow eventually wore off after enough apologizing and shushing on her part. Luigi could only stare at Starlow as she advanced towards him and removed the towel from around him. Luigi started crying again as the cold air hit his more sensitive skin and caught a hard glance from Starlow, only making him cry harder. Luigi abruptly stopped crying when something was slipped underneath his rear. Upon moving his chubby and shaky hands, Luigi found it was a diaper that Starlow had slipped under him. She was the absolute last person in the world he wanted anywhere near him! As Starlow came near, Luigi kicked his tiny legs as hard as possible, hitting her a few times. Although Luigi was tiny, his legs were still strong enough to faze Starlow slightly. Starlow didn't say a word, however, as she tried desperately to finish the job. She finally did and had an angry looking Luigi staring at her. Luigi felt completely violated by this jerk! This meant war.

Although Luigi couldn't move very well in his current state, he wanted to make Starlow feel the pain of every time she ever insulted him and made him break down into tears. And now was the perfect time to exact his revenge. As soon as Starlow's back was turned to grab something else, Luigi did his best to shimmy out of his diaper and kick it away from him. Starlow eventually turned back with a bottle of warm milk in her mouth, but dropped it when she saw Luigi.

"Oh no, Lou, you're supposed to keep your diaper on!" she said cheerfully as she tried to put it back on while being met with considerable resistance from Luigi.

Finally she managed to put the diaper on again and shoved the bottle into Luigi's mouth, trying to make him drink. Luigi squirmed and fought. He actually wasn't trying to take revenge this time, but she was pushing a little too hard for his liking and it was hurting slightly. Luigi eventually drank a sufficient amount of milk and Starlow lowered the bottle. Luigi felt great… that is until he felt a weird pressure in his throat.

" _Starlow, babies can't burp on their own, you gotta burp me before-_ " In a second both Luigi and Starlow were covered in regurgitated milk.

Luigi felt himself flush red with embarrassment, while Starlow flied around trying to find a burp cloth. Starlow managed to find one and turned around to find Lou without his diaper again. Luigi knew that the last one was a complete accident, but he was still angry at her.

"Urgh," groaned Starlow as she finished wiping the spit-up off the both of them, "Why are you being so difficult?"

Starlow strapped on Lou's diaper, promising herself that she isn't going to be putting it on him again and he can just be naked if he takes it off again. Luigi promptly took it off again and stared at Starlow, as if daring her to make another move. Luigi didn't expect Starlow to putter down to the floor and start crying. Luigi almost felt sorry for her, but revenge is still worth… wait. He was being even worse than her. Although she insulted him on a regular basis, she never took it this far. Luigi looked at the sobbing Star Sprite and knew he had to do something. Luigi squirmed up to Starlow and gave her a big hug.

"Soh… we," Luigi mumbled out in his adorably slurred and broken voice.

Starlow paused for a moment. Babies weren't supposed to talk at six months. Not to mention a word like sorry with two syllables and was more complicated than "mom" or "dad". But an apology is an apology and Starlow accepted it and snuggled back to the adorable infant. A door opening interrupted the two and Mario stepped into the room.

"Sorry to break this up, but I wa… is Lou naked?" asked Mario as he looked on at his little brother staring up at him before shrugging, "You, know what? I'm just going to pretend this never happened and I'm going to take Lou in for the princesses to see. Please pass me a new diaper, Starlow."

Starlow handed Mario a diaper and within seconds, Luigi was covered again and this situation never had to be spoken of again.

"And Starlow, could you please have the chefs make mushrooms blended up with peaches? I think Lou would like that. Just take it up to the room we're in when it's prepared, okay? Thanks!"

And with that, Mario was out the door with tiny and fragile Luigi in his arms.

"Something tells me that before I walked into the room, things weren't exactly sunshine and rainbows with Starlow, am I right?" Mario asked the infant in his arms, who bobbed his head yes.

"Just try to be nice to everyone, okay?"

Another head bob.

"Good."

Mario finally reached the room, while Luigi gnawed on the buttons of his overalls and made weird little grunting noises. As soon as Mario opened the door, he was nearly tackled by the two very excited princesses who covered Luigi in kisses, which Luigi couldn't help but notice the defensive look on Mario's face as the princesses kissed him. Time started to pass (it was still a bit until the meeting and preparations were all done) and Luigi was passed around incessantly as each princess refused to go more than one minute without him. Everything was great and Luigi was sucking on the ball he had earlier in the nursery that Daisy had moved in there for him, but in a matter of five seconds, that changed.

A loud rumbling filled the room, causing small chunks of the ceiling to fall on the floor and shaking everything. This meant only one thing. Kidnapping. Mario snatched up Luigi quickly before a piece of shrapnel fell on him and within seconds, both Mario and the princesses were running towards the door of the room they were in, but were too late as a massive shape hovered down from a hole in the ceiling in his clown car. Luigi started to cry in fear as Mario desperately tried to shush him and Bowser began his monologue that it was tradition to deliver before a kidnapping.

"Well, well, well. Look what we've got here. Two princesses, a plumber, and an incredibly annoying brat. I never thought I would get this lucky in one day, but here we are," the King of the Koopas looked at the still crying baby and roared loudly at him, which only caused Luigi to cry harder, "Maybe you could make a nice snack for the piranha plants back at the castle if you don't stop."

"DON'T YOU DARE HARM LUIGI!" yelled Mario at Bowser, instinctively holding Luigi closer and taking a fighting position the best he could. Mario didn't realize his mistake until everyone, Luigi included, froze and looked at him. He accidentally revealed Luigi for who he was and Mario let his free hand that wasn't holding Luigi cover his mouth. Bowser was shocked until a smug look started to cross his face and he let out a guffaw.

"You're telling me that this is your twin brother? Even better!" Bowser laughed before a look of contemplation crossed his face for a single moment, "Meh, other than not being able to move very well, I don't see much of a difference."

Both princesses only stared in shock. Suddenly the weird deja vu they got with him made sense. No wonder he looked so much like Luigi, because they were the one and the same! Luigi could only look at the giant turtle monster in fear, helpless to do anything. In one quick swoop, Bowser grabbed the girls and Mario in his arms and yanked Luigi forcefully out of Mario's arms and stared him straight in the face.

"I don't need a brat to mess up the castle, so you get to stay here," Bowser said as he tossed Luigi. Luckily Luigi landed on the couch which cushioned his fall, but it still hurt and started up another crying fit.

"Hasta la vista, baby," said Bowser as he started flying off in his clown car. Both of the princesses and Mario gave a scornful stare.

"One more pun like that and we will end you," said the trio in unison before resuming their struggles to get away.

XxX

Starlow heard the crashing and booming from her hiding spot and knew that Bowser must have invaded again. As soon as the booming stopped, Starlow instantly flew out of her spot and rushed to the room that was attacked. She almost cried when she saw the broken and desolate room devoid of any life. Bowser got them all. Mario, Peach, Daisy, and Lou. Who knows what he's going to do to them now. Lou might not even survive. What to do, what to do? A tiny cough reignited the hope within Starlow and she quickly rushed over to the source of the cough. It seemed to be coming from a pile of rubble, but Starlow knew somebody had to be beneath it and she dug like she never dug before (mainly because she _hadn't_ dug before due to lack of hands. Digging with your face is not pleasant.) and quickly found the source. Underneath all the rubble lay baby Lou, covered in dust, unconscious, and covered in scratches. Bowser was going to pay for this.

Lou slowly pulled open his eyes and grabbed onto Starlow and began babbling weakly. It was as if he had somewhere he needed to go and he knew where it was. There was almost an unnatural light of intelligence behind those sparkling blue eyes of the child's and Starlow knew she had to listen. Lou grabbed onto her and she hovered up.

"Okay Lou, try to show me where you want to go."

 _Yay another chapter in the hole! In two days from this being posted (June 1_ _st_ _), I'm resuming Kitsune Curse and other stories like this one are going to be shoved more to the back burner (not as many updates regularly, but will still get updates). Also, I had another story idea, so be on the look out for "Echoes of Yesterday" .This story is almost over and will be completed soon, and I hope you enjoy and please leave a review. Thank you! I have nothing else to say, so Norm out. And don't forget that friends are like snowflakes. If you pee on them, they're gone._


	5. Chapter 5: The Truth Comes Out

_Norman Whitesmith is back again! Just a heads up that this is being written on a phone rather than a computer, so chances are there are going to be more mistakes and chapters are going to be shorter. Unfortunately, I can't uphold my 40 wpm typing speed on a phone keyboard. Also, this doesn't have spell check, so expect some spelling errors, but hopefully not too many as I am fairly good at spelling. This is the third to last chapter of Adored By All, so I hope you enjoy. Also, in the last chapter it was pointed out that this story had a lot in common with the anime "Detective Conan" and I was asked if I based this story somewhat after it. I actually had never heard of Detective Conan before and as soon as I heard about it, I watched a bunch of episodes and realized how close the show is to my story. I didn't base this off of Detective Conan at all, as I didn't even know of its existence at the time I was conceptualizing this. But without further ado, audience of_ _all ages, Chapter 5. (And the formatting is wonky, so I can't center the "Chapter 5" title. Sorry)_

Chapter 5: The Truth Comes Out

Starlow was absolutely astounded at how smart the child seemed to be. It didn't take too long for the two of them to work out a system for Lou to steer while flying so he could show Starlow something. There was definitely something off about Lou. There was something familiar about him, as if they had somehow met before. But Starlow couldn't dwell on that as she had to pay attention to flying. She could only speculate what was with the child with sparkling intelligent blue eyes. As soon as the flying system of "pull either of my feet to indicate the direction you want to go" was worldlessly established, the dynamic duo set off immediately, but rather slowly for the sake of Lou holding on. With no princess and no hero to protect the kingdom, who knows what other villains would choose the worst possible time to show up and take over? The two had to move fast and Starlow felt as if what Lou wanted to show her would help.

As soon as the dream team left the castle, Starlow felt a twinge of confusion as Lou angled her towards a dirt road that she knew lead to where the Mario Bros lived. How could this child possibly know where the brothers lived? Aside from that elephant in the room, what was the kid planning on doing? Getting Luigi?

"Hey Lou, if you're getting Luigi, you should probably save your time. I doubt the man who's afraid of his own shadow could pull together and help at a time like this."

Was that a tiny grunt of indignation she heard from the tiny thing? Oh well, she was probably just hearing things. As the two puttered along slowly, the sun began to set, casting long shadows from the trees and bushes that almost looked like long fingers. Lou seemed to tense up as night came further along, and Starlow felt an odd twinge of Deja Vu as she peered down at the fear starting to twist the infant's face. He almost reminded her of Luigi. That was it! That was why he looked familiar! He had an uncanny resemblance to Luigi, even down to really similar facial expressions. Maybe she should show him to Luigi later for kicks.

A sudden pull on Starlow's left foot yanked her out of her thoughts. The two were still in the middle of nowhere and there were just some bushes off to the side.

"Are you sure you want to go there, Lou?" asked Starlow as she glanced down at the determined infant.

Another insistent pull on her left foot confirmed it. For some reason, Lou wanted to go behind the bushes. Starlow complied silently, hoping that the oddly intelligent baby knew what he was doing. As soon as she began to fly behind the bushes a hidden grotto came into view, which again made Starlow question how the infant knew all this and just what he wanted to so desperately show her. Suddenly, Lou let go, giving Starlow a sufficient heart attack as she hopelessly watched him plummet down from five feet in the air, but felt relief as she heard a splash. Lou had landed smack dab in the center of a mud puddle, but didn't stay there long as he soon wiggled off towards one of the bushes. Shouldn't he have cried from being dropped from that high? What did Lou want from the bushes?

Starlow soon got her answer as the child made it to the bushes and seemed to grab something before slipping down the slight hill that the bush was on. Lou had something in his mouth. Something green. Lou slowly removed the green object from his mouth. Wait, there was an L on the cap! It was Luigi's hat! But what was it doing in the bushes? How did Lou know it was there? Lou slowly raised the hat to his head and put it on, the hat almost falling off from being too big. Starlow just stared at Lou wearing the hat.

"Owh key dowk e," Lou said very slowly, but with the right inflection in his voice.

Starlow only continued to stare, with more questions than answers. What was... suddenly everything clicked in Starlow's mind. Everything made sense now, or at least close to sense. She had the answer to her questions now.

"LUIGI?!" Starlow yelled, looking at the more infantile appearance of the Luigi she knew that sat in front of her.

Then she remembered the nursery fiasco.

"You..." Starlow growled out before yelling, "WHAT IN THE NAME OF GRAMBI IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

XxX

It was time to tell her. Though to be perfectly honest, Luigi would rather tell anyone other than her what was going on. But he had to tell her. Mario and the princesses lives were on the line and he couldn't let his fear get in the way this time. Starlow and him quickly worked out a flying system and they were off. If Starlow wasn't out for his blood as much, they actually had the makings of a great team. Luigi recognized the area of the clearing he woke up in when they got there and quickly indicated to Starlow to go there. Luigi watched as the puddle came up beneath him and dropped, ready to get to his clothes to hopefully show Starlow who he is so rescue efforts could commence as soon as possible.

Luigi wiggled towards the bush as fast as possible, hoping Starlow wouldn't drag him away. Fortunately she didn't grab him and Luigi managed to grab his hat before slipping down the tiny slope, hat in mouth. He had one shot at this. Luigi carefully put on his hat, amazed at how big it was in comparison to his now tiny head, and looked back at Starlow expecting something. Nothing. Starlow only had a blank expression on her face. He had to try harder. But then again, how do you wordlessly communicate "Help, I'm Luigi and I got turned into an infant for weird reasons"? But on the other hand, in this land it's more than in the realm of possibility to eat mushrooms to double in size or shrink, and turn into a penguin or raccoon by putting on a magical suit. So how is turning into a baby outside of that realm of possibilities?

It wasn't. He just had to be more convincing. Wait, he got it! Luigi said his catch phrase slowly, careful to get it right and stared at the Star Sprite, hoping she got it. Luigi watched the thoughts fly across her face. Starlow finally reached the right conclusion. Luigi expected her to be shocked. What he didn't expect was for her to downright explode! Luigi felt his bottom lip begin to twitch again before he started to cry again, wailing in fear, causing Starlow to get even more angry at him!

"Stop your crying! What are you, six months old?" Starlow looked at Luigi, who had stopped crying in an instant but was still sniffling and was staring back at her, "You know what? Forget that last part. But still, what the heck man? I mean, you were acting horribly back in the nursery because you kept taking off your... and that's just wrong and gross for a number of reasons! But what happened?"

Luigi knew that it would fail, but tried anyways to talk and explain everything from the top. The usual result of babbling ensued, but at least Starlow was able to draw another conclusion from this.

"Oh. You can't talk, can you? I'm guessing you're too young. Well... at least your words were close to English. But seriously, why? Now you're even more useless than before! You can't really move, you can't talk, heck, technically speaking you're not even potty-trained and need help with that," Starlow paused and noticed Luigi's face had turned bright red with the last comment and also how dark it was getting as the sun set further, "and now the princesses and Mario are kidnapped and now it's up to me to save them! You're pretty much dead weight right now. Adorable dead weight!"

Luigi let out a large yawn, causing Starlow to pause again and stare at him. It was getting late and any remaining light had seemed to have left, much like tenants out of a condemned apartment. But Luigi couldn't sleep. He felt cold and was only in his diaper, covered in mud that was staring to chill his skin.

Starlow noticed this and let out a sigh. "And now you're tired and have to rest. I guess we could square this away in the morning. Do you by chance have any ideas on how to keep warm so neither of us die?"

Luigi extended one of his chubby arms and pointed a shaky finger towards the bushes. Starlow was about to question what the heck he was thinking, but thought better of it and flew over, her natural glowing lighting her way. Starlow entered the bush where Luigi had grabbed his hat from and looked around. She noticed Luigi's clothing splayed out on the ground oddly and wondered what good that would do, but then realized that both of them were "tiny" and could easily fit inside his shirt, which could provide some warmth during the night. Luigi was a bit smarter than she thought.

But then the situation struck Starlow as odd. The clothing was still together, shirt inside overalls as if they were worn and the tenant had plain disappeared out of them. The more Starlow thought of it, the more this hinted at what happened, as Luigi was physically unable to tell her himself. This hinted at whatever "struck" him with this, it did it suddenly and this was the spot where it took effect. That also meant it was an accident. I mean, who would take a trip to town if they knew that something like this would happen and make them pass out in the bushes. Somewhere inside Starlow's mind, she had assumed Luigi had done this on purpose, though it was highly illogical. Starlow couldn't help but smile at the thought of Luigi holding a spell book and chanting an ancient spell, being covered by smoke then it clearing and revealing him as a baby on the floor laughing manically. Then Starlow realized that that was too much like a mad scientist.

After realizing she was floating there for a good minute doing nothing but staring off into space with an idiotic grin on her face, Starlow realized she had to get the shirt. Starlow lowered herself to the shirt and grabbed hold with her teeth and pulled (think about it. She doesn't have hands or an equivalent, so how else does she grab things?). The shirt eventually came out of the overalls, but also carried Luigi's lime green briefs out with them, complete with Luigi's name written in sharpie on the waistband. She did not need to see that at all. As soon as Starlow got over the shock, she quickly made her way back to Luigi, who had to sit in the dark while she was grabbing his shirt and his face clearly showed it with the amount of fear displayed. Starlow only tittered at him and lowered the shirt over his head, Luigi's small size making the shirt more like an oversized dress on him. As she watched Luigi examine the shirt, she smiled a little. As much as she hated to admit it, he was rather cute (but not in a romantic way!) and as she watched him fall asleep, she remembered watching him sleep for an adventure. He did always look rather peaceful. She could hardly believe that this sleeping infant in front of her was the same Luigi she had always knew. Although he bore the resemblance to his older self, he looked so much different in another way. It was hard to believe, but all the signs, even the child himself, pointed to it being true. Starlow watched as Luigi began to shake lightly and decided that he could use some warmth and she could use some sleep and flew over and nestled into his oversized shirt next to him, enjoying the light cooing noises he made in his sleep.

Luigi was amazed at how big the shirt was compared to him. It was more like a tent than a shirt now, but that worked in his favor as it now made a suitable blanket. Did he really used to be this big? Was he really this small? Although Luigi was only a baby for less than half a day, he was already used to this. It was actually rather nice, other than a few draw backs. As Luigi lay down and stared up at the bright and exotic stars, he realized something. ' _This is actually pretty pleasant._ _For the most part, I don't have to worry about anything and I can simply relax again and enjoy life. Maybe... I should stay like this_ ,' thought Luigi sleepily as he began to drift off. Luigi felt something warm nuzzle into his arms and knew it was Starlow when the dim yellow glow reached behind his eyelids. The two cuddled each other for warmth, ready to face the next day's trials, unaware and not thinking of what Bowser was doing with the captured trio.

 _Argh, that was long and hard to write with a phone! Sorry about the short chapter. Until I get my computer problems solved, I can't write longer chapters, so sorry about that, but I'll do my best. I hope you enjoyed. Until I get my computer back again, I cannot do work on "Echoes of Yesterday", unfortunately, as the uncompleted file is on there. But fear not! I will be able to resume as normal eventually and write good and long stories. Also, a side note is that Nintendo says that when Mario puts on a suit, he actually turns into that animal. the way I see it is that the top is like a hood, but the bottom part becomes his body. And a short little blurb to Rockster, I do have other stories out other than Kitsune Curse and this. They're called "If He Failed" and "King L". And another thing is that although this story isn't based off of Detective Conan, it is somewhat based off of other fanfics I have read where Luigi turns into a baby (namely "my widdle weegie"), but I made this different where Luigi's mind doesn't change, really, because I like the interactions this causes. But as I am writing this at 11 at night, I'm tired, so I've got no more words for you, other than, I try to be clear and open where I get inspiration for my works from. Until next time, Norm out. And don't forget to congratulate 2017 grads. They worked hard and deserve some praise._


	6. Chapter 6: Unwanted Solution

_Norman Whitesmith is back again! I managed to get my computer back, so writing can resume as normal, but on stories like this where a few chapters were written on the phone, I'll finish off the story with the phone and I'll just revise it all with a computer later. But hey, the next chapter of Kitsune Curse is being written_ _expect to see longer chapters again soon. How nice it is to feel the lovely clack of computer keys underneath my fairly oafish butterfingers. The words appearing on my computer screen just singing with a life of its own. And this has been nerdy poetry with Norman. Tune in next week to see a Bible story paraphrased put into modern terms by our very own Norman (and it'll be extra cringe too!). Ahem, now that I have that very important part out of the way, without further ado, people that hate me and people that hate me even more, Chapter 6. The second to last chapter in this story._

Chapter 6: Unwanted Solution

Starlow woke up in the morning to a foul smell and an infant snuggling her with her star firmly clamped between his gums. Starlow was not a morning person, believe it or not, and couldn't remember where she was and who this weird child was. Starlow began to panic until it all came flooding back to her. Luigi, for reasons yet to be explained to her, had regressed in age all the way back to a six month old infant, rendering him unable to talk, move very well on his own, and most of all... oh. That's what that horrible smell must be. Starlow felt peeved at the small infant sleeping next to her. While Luigi was undeniably cute, the mess he made that fell down to her to clean up was anything but. Starlow wriggled her way out of Luigi's bear hug and out of his shirt, promptly waking him up as soon as her warm star left his mouth. Luigi was not a morning person either and began to sob immediately, both from the discomfort on his rear and from him losing his heat source. Starlow pointedly glared at the infant and began yelling at him.

"COME ON YOU BIG JOKE!" Starlow yelled at the wailing and tiny version of the Luigi she knew, "YOU'RE STILL TWENTY FOUR AND DESPITE YOUR BODY BEING SMALLER, YOU SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO CONTROL WHETHER YOU'RE CRYING OR NOT! I SWEAR, IF YOU WEREN'T STUCK AS AN INFANT RIGHT NOW, I WOULD SLAP YOU INTO LAST WEEK! BUT I'M BEGINNING TO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR AGE ANYMORE!"

Starlow realized that she had been a bit harsh on the infant plumber and saw the hurt and fear in Luigi's eyes very strongly. Well, one thing that she did like about Luigi was that he wore his heart on his sleeve and made it pretty clear what he was feeling most of the time, whether it be him, a full grown man (well, not right now, of course.), crying and weeping in worry or him encouraging a discouraged opponent that they would have a great fight and do well. Maybe she was being a bit harsh. After all, she didn't know what he was going through or what exactly he was feeling. After all, she didn't know what turning into an infant felt like or what that did exactly to Luigi's mind, though it's pretty clear he didn't completely lose it. Luigi at least had stopped crying.

Luigi, on the other hand, had no idea how Starlow could slap him without hands, but didn't want to find out. Luigi stopped crying and saw the remorse all over her face. But that didn't change the fact that he was still scared of her. Starlow calmed down and looked at Luigi before talking.

"Look, I'm sorry. This entire situation has me worked up. I'm no hero, yet it seems to be up to me to save the ruler of one Kingdom and the future ruler of another. It's rough. Now, can you explain how this happened?"

Luigi tried to explain what had happened again with much arm flapping and furious babbling, but it was again futile. Not being able to talk was really starting to grind on Luigi's nerves. As Starlow looked on confused, Luigi let his arms flop in the mud in defeat. Wait... that's it! Luigi excitedly flipped from his back to his belly and began tracing in the mud with his shaky hands, luckily being able to create basic shapes.

Starlow hovered over and saw what Luigi was doing. He was creating basic drawings of what happened! Nothing like the universal language of art. Luigi finished his art and squirmed backwards so Starlow could see.

Luigi had drawn simple pictures with arrows pointing to the next image. Starlow stared at the mud paintings, trying to interpret them. The first picture was of a stick figure with a mustache, which Starlow assumed pretty easily was Luigi. Next she saw a weird garbage bag holding onto stick Luigi and dragging him towards a trapezoid shaped forest. Okay... In the next picture... oh, that wasn't a trapezoid forest! It was a tent, which in this picture had a sign over it that read "Potion Shop" in Luigi's shaky and barely legible writing, which was quite the contrast to his normal perfect cursive. Now Luigi is given a flask by the garbage bag and he's holding it. Next picture shows him drinking it. Next picture shows a smaller Luigi with a mustache. So that's what happened.

"Don't you know better than to drink mysterious potions given to you by living garbage bags, Luigi?" asked Starlow, only to be met with a look of pure confusion from Luigi. In retrospect, that sentence did sound a bit preposterous and she probably did interpret a few things wrong.

"You know what, let's just get you cleaned up and take you to Merlon to see what can be done about this."

Starlow took off the shirt from Luigi and stared at the infant for a second before lowering herself down. Luigi's blue eyes always had a sparkle of intelligence to them, which rang true to adult Luigi's personality. Despite being a rather timid mess of a man that seemed more like a child personality and behavior wise, Luigi was actually rather intelligent. Although he never seemed to talk much when Mario was around, Luigi did have some pretty smart ideas to share on adventures, which made Luigi invaluable, as much as Starlow hated to admit it, though she couldn't tell why she hated to admit such a thing. Starlow could admit rather easily that Mario wasn't always the sharpest crayon in the shed and rushed head on into dangerous situations, and Luigi's rather thoughtful and cautious nature worked with that nicely, making them an unbeatable team. Although Luigi now had a more childish appearance to match his rather childish behavior from the past, he looked so foreign in a way, yet the blue eyes reminded Starlow that it was the same Luigi, albeit a bit smellier now.

The duo set off again, Starlow informing Luigi that they were going into town and were going to try and find a new diaper for him as priority one before attempting anything else. Luigi gave a simple nod and Starlow picked up her pace, remembering that this was no mere infant and that Luigi would probably still be able to hold on to her strongly with a faster speed and indicate to her if it was otherwise.

As soon as Starlow and Luigi got to the edge of Toad Town, Starlow puttered down to the ground behind a bush, giving Luigi a small respite before continuing.

"Okay, loser- I mean Luigi," started Starlow in a low voice with Luigi staring at her intently, not even noticing the insult as they were quite frequent from her, " We're going into Toad Town. We don't want to get seen, as to avoid crowds and hopefully make things go more smoothly. So you're going to have to maneuver us through town, as you know it better. You can probably find the store that Daisy told us about that she initially got you cleaned up in, as they are more likely to just give us a free diaper and some wipes to get you cleaned up! We'll see what we're going to do next as soon as you're clean. Got that? And you better not mess this up!"

The infant simply nodded as that was all he really could do, and grabbed onto Starlow's feet once more, Starlow going full speed ahead and trusting Luigi's steering. The two zipped through alleys so fast that the few Toads that had one too many super mushrooms dismissed them simply as a very realistic hallucination. Luigi and Starlow wove in and out of streets, speed never slowing down enough for anyone around to see more than a brief yellow blur. Wait did Luigi just try to drift Starlow across that last corner? But Starlow didn't have time to complain at Luigi as they arrived in front of the convenience store. Starlow floated inside to find a rather mean looking toad managing the cash register. While this made Starlow hesitant to panhandle for a diaper and some wipes, she knew what had to be done. Luigi, on the other hand, was panicking in his mind as he recognized this toad as the one that goaded him into drinking the potion in the first place. Hopefully he didn't recognize or terrorize him.

Starlow floated to the counter and set Luigi down before talking to the toad as nicely as she could.

"Umm, hello. My name is Starlow. I was put in charge of babysitting this child, but unfortunately am all out of baby supplies and wasn't left any money to get more supplies. Now the kid needs changing and I was wondering if it wasn't too much trouble to borrow a diaper and some wipes to take care of him...?"

It took every bit of willpower in Starlow's being to not flinch away from the toad's hard glare as she told her false story, but to her surprise, the toad smiled at her.

"Oh, so this must be the human child that I've been hearing about!" said the toad as he picked up Luigi, who was scared stiff, "Of course you can get some supplies! I'll just hold this adorable fellow as you get them."

The toad continued to make funny faces at Luigi as Starlow took her sweet time getting supplies while Luigi continued to suffer the endless cooing of someone he hated. But at least he wasn't bullying Luigi now. Starlow finally got a small package of wipes and a single diaper and placed them on the changing station before coming back for Luigi. Starlow thanked the clerk and picked up Luigi, whom she noted looked petrified.

Starlow put Luigi down on the changing table and got ready to clean him up. Starlow began cleaning him up thoroughly, noting that Luigi's face was a bright red and he looked more embarrassed than she was. Finally Starlow finished the messy ordeal that was even messier, because again she didn't have hands and had to use her mouth to grab things. But at least Luigi was cooperating and making her job easier this time. Luigi lay on the table with a crisp new diaper staring at Starlow. She was probably right that he was more embarrassed than her.

"And you better not do that again, got it?" said Starlow, her voice hard.

Luigi nodded and both wordlessly agreed to never speak of this again after the entire baby thing was over.

Starlow zipped out of the store and into the nearest alley before pausing. What if Luigi could direct her to the tent where he got the potion from? They might have an antidote on hand and the problem could be solved quickly and easily!

"Okay Luigi, try to guide me to the tent where you got the infant potion in the first place, alright?"

Luigi responded with a "Ya!" before beginning to steer Starlow. The two made their way towards the town square containing all the shops and Luigi managed to get themselves to the area next to the tea shop with minimal attention from citizens and Luigi sat there holding onto Starlow before making a squeaking sound of confusion.

"Hey, Starlow!" said the tea shop owner, starting Starlow and making her nearly shake poor Luigi off with her jump, "If you're looking for the potion shop that was here yesterday, the owner got ran off because she was disturbing the peace and invading people's personal space. She isn't here anymore."

"Oh, okay. Thank you!" said Starlow before flying off towards Merlon's circular building. He was their last bet on being able to fix this so Starlow could at least have some assistance with saving the two princesses and Mario.

The duo made their way into the circular tent to see Merlon sitting in his chair with his crystal ball glowing, staring at Luigi and Starlow intently, as if he were waiting for them the entire time.

"Ah, Luigi and Starlow, right on schedule! Come in and please make it quick. The personal health trainer will be coming right on schedule too in about ten minutes. Oh and before I forget... Starlow, set Luigi on the table in front of me."

Starlow complied, leaving Luigi to stare up at the mysterious hooded figure.

"So Luigi, quite a predicament you got yourself in here, huh?"

Luigi nodded his head.

"Well, good thing I saw this all coming ahead of time so I could create a cure! Hold out your hand," Luigi did so and a tiny green round pill was placed in his hand, "Eat that and you'll be an adult again, alright?"

Luigi stared at the round green pill in his hand. This was the solution. It was surprisingly easy. All he had to do was eat it and he'd be normal again. He'd then rush off to save the trio of victims... then what? Be shunned again by all? Be endlessly mocked and laughed at? Be called a coward at every turn?

What if... he didn't take the cure? Would that be so bad? Luigi would get another chance to grow up again with a second shot at life. People loved and adored him as he was now, saying he was destined for greatness. Perhaps Daisy would still take him in and let him live with her. Sure never being able to date her would suck, but there are thousands of fish in the sea and he could find someone else. He'd live the life of a prince and treated as such by castle attendants. Regular Luigi would be missing forever, but it's not like anyone would notice really. Heck, he'd be adored and worshipped as he still remembered all of his early schooling and would be an A student years ahead of his time, not to mention he'd have time to conquer all of his fears so he wouldn't be considered a scaredy cat when he became an adult again. And if he did live in the castle, there'd be a chance for him to ascend the throne and become King in the future when nobody would remember the existence or appearance of the man known as Luigi Segale. It was perfect. Why did he even want the cure in the first place?

Luigi sat up for the first time, keeping his balance while taking off his hat. Where the L was sewn onto his hat was a small pocket that could keep the cure safe. Luigi slipped the pill into the pocket and put the hat back on his head. Maybe some day. Starlow froze and stared for a second, making sure that her eyes didn't betray her. Did Luigi just turn down the cure that would make him an adult again?

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Starlow yelled at Luigi, startling him and making him begin to sob again, "YOU'RE GIVEN ONE CHAN-"

"Starlow, if I may speak to you in private please."

Starlow sighed, picked Luigi up rather roughly, and placed him outside the tent before coming back in.

"Yes?"

"Please stare into my crystal ball."

Starlow watched as scenes leaped inside the ball, fascinated. They appeared to be about some loser teenager that was really short getting rejected from everything and made fun of at every turn. Suddenly, the crowd surrounding the teen moved over to the side to some other short and chubbier teen that sported a glossy black mustache and a taller girl with brown hair and a short red dress. Wait... that's Mario while he was in high school! He seemed a bit more arrogant too. But that could only mean one thing. The loser teen was Luigi. But Luigi was extraordinarily tall as an adult! Who knew he used to be about 4' 6" as a teen (though to be perfectly honest, Luigi looked really young as a teen, as if he should be in elementary school rather than high school.). Luigi stared at Mario's mustache before rubbing his own bare upper lip. In the next scene, Starlow could see Luigi going through multiple rejections again, but this time with the badly grown in beginnings of a black mustache. As Luigi's life progressed, Starlow watched him losing at just about everything possible. He must have hit some growth spurt after the eleventh grade or something because even Mario, who was really short as a full grown adult, was a good deal taller than him, so Mario won in that department. The parents seemed to favor Mario over Luigi, so Luigi lost there. The more and more Starlow watched, the more she felt bad for the poor guy. Mario seemed to be an absolute jerk to him as a kid (but at least he mellowed out as an adult and loved his brother.), which didn't make things better.

The final scene Starlow saw in the ball took place at the castle, so it must have been some time soon after the bros arrived. Luigi had finally gotten growing his mustache correctly after many failed attempts (most of which Starlow would be internally laughing at if she wasn't feeling sorry for him.) and he was sitting on the edge of the fountain. Princess Peach came out of the castle and walked over to Luigi before saying something quickly and walking off. Luigi took off his hat and began to cry. It was no real secret that Luigi used to have a crush on Peach. He must have told her his feelings and got rejected. Ouch.

"So you see," said Merlon, "Being an infant again is like his second chance at life to not be that loser that nobody likes. And hopefully to not grow horrible mustaches like he did starting off again. Because those things were awful."

"I guess you're right. He did have a valid reason for not wanting the cure. But we need to get going. We have to save the princesses and Mario. I'll think about what you said, and sorry for exploding in front of you."

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to him."

Merlon pointed out the door at Luigi who was visible an holding something.

"Now go."

Starlow left and looked at Luigi as she went out. She wouldn't look at him the same way again. But what was he holding? Starlow looked closer at the glass object Luigi was holding. It appeared to be a flask of sorts with a paper tag on the end that read "to be adored by all". Luigi made a drinking motion with the bottle then a poof noise. He must have drank this to cause the infancy. But then again, could she blame him. Everybody seemingly hated and ignored him and a potion like that would seem the perfect fix. She needed to think about this.

Suddenly, a red and blue flash whipped by her and baby Luigi was off the ground in seconds while she was slammed into a bird cage before she could react. She seemed to have her cage stuck on a long stick. Looking in front of her, she saw white cloth tied to the stick with movement inside. Luigi's terrified head managed to find its way out and Luigi began to sob loudly.

"Well well well," sneered a familiar voice as if started to fly away with Luigi and Starlow on the broomstick he was riding, "I'm getting a bit of deja vu here with you stuck in my bag again, Luigi. But to be honest, you cried less when you were an actual baby."

Kamek cackled as he flew away with his two prisoners.

 _Welp, that is a nice cliff hanger there. Be sure to review and tell me how I did here. Now to handle some things. First, the phrase "Sharpest Crayon in the Shed" is mixing up "sharpest tool in the shed", "brightest crayon in the box", and "Sharpest knife in the drawer". I found the phrase hilarious, so I used it. And Luigi's last name came from Mario's supposed namesake (that's plain accepted and has never been actually confirmed) Mario Segale. I'm tired and writing and finishing this in the middle of the night and want to sleep, so I've got nothing else to say, so Norm out. And don't forget that if someone tells you that you can't reap what you don't sow, just reap what that person sowed. That'll teach the fools for giving you lip._


	7. Chapter 7: Sacrifice and Maturity

_Norman Whitesmith back to conclude my first series! This is the first multi-chaptered story of mine to get an end and I'm excited. This story had a good run and thanks be to you, the readers, for giving me feedback in order to improve it. Even if you're late to the party and the story ended long ago, please still do leave a review! I read every one and it helps me know as a writer if I'm doing alright and where I need to be. All in all, I was wanting to give this story an end long ago, but life came up and made writing this an impossibility. But now's my chance and I'm going to give you the finale you've all been wanting! So without further ado, here's chapter seven, the final chapter of Adored By All._

((edit: Thanks to Rockster for helping me edit and fix small errors))

XxX

Chapter 7: Sacrifice and Maturity

XxX

It was a beautiful day over the Mushroom Kingdom. A day where all the clouds in the sky sang of brightness and promise, while the expanse above them shimmered a perfect blue that made stars jealous. Everything seemed to be going right with the world and nothing could change it. But if one were to look closely at the sky bordering the Dark Lands, the place in perpetual darkness in smog, the place people refused to think of in order to preserve their happy thoughts, then they'd see a small speck traveling through the sky. Helicopters and planes weren't that common in the Mushroom Kingdom as there wasn't much of a use for them, but what was this? All who saw the speck simply ignored it though, wanting to not worry about what ominous omen this meant, or how their perfect day could be ruined.

In truth, this speck flying through the sky towards the Dark Lands was indeed proof that this day wasn't perfect. In fact, far from it. This speck fortold of the doom to the Mushroom Kingdom if nothing was done. It told of captured heroes and kidnapped royalty and how perhaps this might just be the last perfect day the Kingdom may see.

This speck was none other than Kamek, a royal Magikoopa of Bowser at his right hand, who was carrying the last two heroes that could have saved the Kingdom- the last hope. The last hope failed.

XxX

Luigi shivered as the cold air rushed through the gaps in the cloth, penetrating his core and chilling him. Although he had tried to make a futile attempt to escape already that composed of him kicking his tiny little legs against his cloth prison, Luigi stopped as soon as he realized how far up he must be. This was confirmed when Luigi stuck his head out of the sack and saw the scrawling landscapes many miles beneath him. Maybe it would be better to wait and see what Kamek does. Although Luigi couldn't remember the events, stories from the elder Toads told of infant Mario plummeting out of the sky onto the back of a Yoshi where he hastened to rescue Luigi. Luigi took this story at face value as the same unchanged story was told among the Yoshi tribes as well, confirming the tale hadn't been butchered through the years.

But how a newborn child could plummet out of the sky at terminal velocity onto the waiting back of a Yoshi without harm to either of them was beyond him. Luigi always assumed that Death had been on a coffee break and was too lazy to go get Mario, so he let that one slide. Either that or the Star Spirits decided that perhaps the prophecised hero of the Mushroom Kingdom wouldn't be able to do his future job very well as a red smear in some bushes on a far off tropical island. But either way, Luigi didn't want to test the mercy of the Star Spirits and just slumped down in the sack, wondering when they were going to land and what was going to become of him.

Starlow had also made multiple attempts to escape, but alas, the bird cage had the most diabolical thing of all keeping her inside: a latch. One that required hands. Foiled again! Starlow couldn't help but feel useless as she saw Luigi's fruitless escape attempts fail and he gave up. They were the heroes. This was never supposed to happen to the heroes. They were supposed to overcome all odds and win. But life wasn't a fairytale and heroes did fall sometimes.

It was when Starlow smelled sulfur and the air took on an acrid density, that she knew they had arrived at their destination. The giant cobblestone castle screamed of death and despair, the lava surrounding it making it unlivable for most species with the exception of few. A rush of heat hit the traveling trio as soon as they crossed the threshold between fertile green grass and burnt unyielding ground. Luigi could feel the acrid air burning his rather fragile eyes, causing them to tear up and water. Starlow, however, was a magical entity and rules weren't exactly the same for her, so all she felt was the heat rush and increase of air density, though she could see the discomfort on Luigi's face as he poked his head out of his sack.

It wasn't long before Kamek swooped in for a landing atop a platform on the roof of a section of the castle. Luigi initially worried how they were going to land without him getting squished considering he was hanging from the bottom of the broomstick and ergo, would be the first thing to touch the ground, but those fears were assuaged when Kamek left the broomstick hovering two feet off the ground when he got off. But it became clear to Luigi that being squished by a Magikoopa was the least of his worries when his sack and Starlow's cage were roughly grabbed off the broomstick, the way Kamek did it suggesting that he wasn't being careful and didn't care if either of them got hurt.

It was only a matter of moments before Luigi felt overwhelming fear shake his being, but he couldn't cry no matter how hard the tears pushed against his eyelids. Not now. What would Kamek do to an annoying infant crying incessently? And how many days in the hospital ICU would it earn him? Those were some questions that Luigi didn't want to test the answer to, so he tried his hardest to keep his mouth shut, only a few whimpers escaping.

Kamek ignored the whimpering and entered a door that was off to the side of the platform which lead to a long row of prison cells inside, two Hammer Bro guards standing by the door and walking up to meet Kamek.

"Your orders, sir?" asked one of the Hammer Bro guards.

Kamek tossed the sack containing Luigi to one guard (who luckily caught it before it hit the ground) and the bird cage with Starlow to the other.

"Guard these two while I go and report to King Bowser. And make sure they don't escape, which with this duo, I think escape right now would be impossible. Don't prove me wrong or I'll have your shells."

With that, Kamek walked off, leaving the two Hammer Bros alone with the prisoners. Almost as soon as Kamek had left, the bros opened up a cage door and threw the prisoners into the cell. Fortunately, Starlow's cage absorbed the impact pretty well, only tipping the cage on the side. Unfortunately, Luigi wasn't as luckly and cracked his head on the stone floor. It was only an underhand toss, luckily, so it didn't hurt Luigi too badly, but it was still hitting his head on a stone floor and the tears pushing against his eyes since landing flooded out as well as the most heartbreaking cry one could hear from an infant.

"Oi, shut up," said one of the guards, twirling a hammer in his hand impatiently.

However, it was beyond Luigi's control to stop now and his loud pitiful wailing continued.

"How do you expect him to shut up when you hurt him?" Starlow practically screamed at the guard.

"I didn't ask you," the Hammer Bro walked inside the cage over to Luigi. "Listen, you better shut up now before I make you."

The wailing continued.

"Okay, you had your chance." A clatter was heard as the Hammer Bro tossed his hammer to the floor and raised his fist. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice."

Starlow gasped as she saw what the Hammer Bro did. Momentary silence followed the blow before Luigi's crying came back louder than ever with a tone of strong pain to it.

"I told you to shut up!" yelled the Hammer Bro over the screaming child. "Now I'm going to keep doing it until you stop."

Tears flowed from Starlow's eyes as she watched the scene unfold in front of her, helpless to change anything. Feeling useless, Starlow turned her face away. It was after one last sickening thud, silence rang out and the Hammer Bro left the cell and resumed his spot outside wordlessly. Starlow couldn't bring herself to look at Luigi.

Ten minutes later, Kamek finally came back and talked to the guards. Within her haze, Starlow heard arguing about how Mario was going to react to his younger sibling and the Hammer Bro saying it refused to shut up. Either way, Starlow wasn't listening very well as she couldn't help but feel responsible for everything that happened to Luigi. If only she had stopped bullying him. If only she had been nicer. If only she had appologized. It wasn't long before the arguing stopped and she felt her cage lifted from the ground by Kamek. The swinging motion caused by movement lulled Starlow off into a momentary doze, a welcome respite for what is to come.

What seemed like moments later to Starlow, the loud clang of throne room doors startled her awake and she was brought back to harsh reality by the sight of giant looking cage containing Daisy, Mario, and Peach, all looking expectantly at Kamek as he brought forward the other two prisoners. A scream rang out almost immediately when Mario saw poor tiny Luigi.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?" Mario yelled.

"Relax," Kamek replied without an ounce of caring in his voice, "the little brat is still alive, just bruised pretty badly. And you know what? He deserved it for making too much noise."

The outrage on Mario's face instantly dissolved when Luigi was roughly shoved into his arms through the bars of the cage. Tears welled up in Mario's eyes as he saw the state of his little brother. He was covered in bruises everywhere, like a coat of spots and his breathing sounded labored. Luigi was in bad shape. Another clank signaled the leaving of Kamek, him leaving Starlow's cage on the ground outside of the bigger prison. The sound of soft crying filled the air as the princesses, Mario, and even Starlow (who finally looked at Luigi and was shocked at how badly hurt he looked) , cried over Luigi. He did nothing to deserve this.

Mario felt a small tug at the back of his overalls from outside the cage and turned around to find a small Shy Guy child, red in color with a small puff of mint green hair peeking out from above her mask, holding a small bottle full of a light green cream.

"I'm so sorry for how you were treated," said the small child that one had to strain their ears in order to hear, "There's some 1-UP salve in there to help him get better. It takes care of wounds very quickly."

Mario turned for a second to hand the bottle to Peach, but when he turned back, the Shy Guy was gone before Mario could thank her. I guess they had their names for a reason. And that's not mentioning how she got into the room without being noticed.

Mario wasted no time grabbing the bottle and applying the salve to all of Luigi's bruises, and was delighted when the bruises already started to look lighter and his breathing sounded more peaceful. Mario held his little brother close, tears spilling from his eyes and darkening Luigi's hair as the moisture soaked in. Seconds later, a small moan was heard as Luigi's eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Ma- hi-o?" asked Luigi in an adorably slurred voice.

"Luigi!" Mario cried in an overjoyed tone, pulling Luigi in close for another embrace, "are you okay?"

Luigi made a tiny nodding motion before being swept out of Mario's arms by the princesses. Daisy hugged him close and both princesses planted kisses on his forehead, Mario wondering how he could easily be upstaged in the love department by his baby brother that wasn't even out of diapers yet.

"Day-e, Peek!" Luigi responded, which only resulted in more love getting given to him and him giggling in response, happy to be back with the people he loved, pushing the memory of the Hammer Bro guard out of his mind.

"Well, well, well, isn't this quite the happy reunion?" boomed a loud voice.

Everyone turned to see Bowser with a malicious grin on his face holding an odd yellow box with a long stick attached to one of the faces.

"I'm so glad you're enjoying each other, because it might be the last time that you do!" A loud booming laugh lept from Bowser's mouth, echoing throughout the room as he started his obligatory 'evil plan' speech. "Now that I have all of you together, not a thing can stop me from world domination and creating an everlasting Koopa empire."

"We'll break free, you'll see!" Mario shouted as he grabbed Luigi back from the princesses and held him protectively, not ready to lose him to the hands of Bowser any time soon.

"Oh, you won't need to break free when you're working for me willingly."

"I'll never work for you!"

"Oh yes you will. In fact, all of you will!" Bowser held up the yellow looking box by the stick and let them see it. "As you can see, this looks kind of like a cheap craft to be done in church, but it is much more. It is in fact the workings for a powerful wand, one that will solidify my place as a ruler. However, it needs a power source and luckily, we just got one."

Bowser moved faster than what seemed possible for a giant turtle and snatched up the cage containing Starlow.

"Behold, the power source! All we have to do is put her in this box and her life force will power my wildest dreams. Then all I have to do is hypnotize you all, and I'll have the perfect set of supporters."

"Yeah, good luck with that, bozo," snapped Starlow. "You can't make me."

Bowser's hand shot into the cage and closed around Starlow, squeezing hard, talons digging into her as she had a look of excruciating pain on her face. Luigi watched every second of this, his own heart breaking for the Star Sprite that was starting to grow on him more.

It was then that reality hit Luigi like a ton of bricks. Starlow was going to die. If she made it into that wand, she was going to die. It seemed as though time was slowing down as Luigi surveyed the situation and Bowser started to pull Starlow out of her cage in slow motion. Fear was glued on the faces of everyone; Mario, the princesses, Starlow herself, and even though he couldn't see his own face, he knew he shared the fear with everyone else. They were all trapped and nothing could be done. Unless... No! Luigi wanted to stay a baby. Even though all it would take is him getting outside of the cage bars he could easily slip through and him taking the cure and the battle would be as good as won, Luigi still wanted to grow up again. He still wanted his second chance, the chance to become a perfect man in the eyes of everyone else. He had an entire new world open to him. But... what good would it be if it cost the life of Starlow? As much as Luigi wanted to hate her in this moment, decide her life wasn't worth the cost of his bright new start, he knew that it was a lie and he truly did like her. She didn't deserve death.

Sure, she always insulted him, sure she targeted him, sure there was no logical reason for this, but does that constitute her impending death? Luigi was now faced with a choice: Let Starlow get her life drained from her and maintain his fresh start, or take the cure and fight back. His choice he was going to make was rather clear from the start. He couldn't be a hero and live with himself if he let Starlow die.

Luigi jumped into action as time still went slow, taking off his hat, his hands steady and true for once, and pulled the cure out, preparing to plunge it into his mouth and resume adulthood.

"Nuhuh, hold it there, greenstache... baby. I wouldn't do that yet if I were you," started Bowser as time suddenly caught up with Luigi again, leaving him holding the cure near his open mouth, startled.

Bowser in the confusion of the moment quickly put his arms in the cage and snatched him away once more from Mario, who desperately stuck his arms out the cage and tried to no avail to grab his brother back.

"Now, I wouldn't do that, greenie. What about all your dreams you wanted to accomplish by growing up again?"

Looks of confusion from everyone in the room greeted Bowser, who simply chuckled.

"You realize that Kamek has a crystal ball too and can easily look into any of your lives, right? It's amazing how easy it is to realize other's hopes and dreams without them knowing," Bowser chuckled, slightly bouncing Luigi in his arms, "and that means I know you dream of being a perfect prince, greenboy. But alas, you may never escape your past with your no-good brother nearby, and with two princesses who clearly remember your true identity at hand. But relax, I'm going to give you the offer of a lifetime. Your lifetime, in fact."

Bowser's face seemed genuinely nice for a moment, filling Luigi with doubt as to whether he could be trusted, but the smallest inkling telling him that perhaps Bowser was going to treat him right.

"So, I will let you be a prince. In fact, you can grow up again as my son with all the power in the world, even with your own continent to rule after I finish my world conquest when you're older. And there are no strings attached. In fact, as a bonus, I'll make Mario your servant, obeying your every command; serving him right for being a jerk to you when you were a kid originally. What do you say? All you have to do is give me the pill and let me absorb the life from the Star Sprite that mistreated you and you'll have all your dreams and more come true. Isn't it better to be adored by all like you are right now? So what do you say, _Luigi_ , will you accept my offer?"

Temptation swarmed Luigi's mind as this seemed to be the perfect solution to his dilemma. Why not be a prestigious prince with jurisdiction over an entire continent? But all thoughts of accepting left Luigi as soon as his eyes settled upon Mario, whose head was hanging low and tears flooding his eyes. Although the childhood issue was solved between them years ago, Luigi knew that Mario was still guilt-ridden from the entire ordeal of his 21 years of mistreating Luigi, his only little brother. Even though Mario could be annoying at times, he was still his twin brother that he didn't want to be a mindless slave, no matter what he did in the past.

Then Luigi's eyes shifted over to Starlow, the small yellow and perky Star Sprite, who had kept her mouth shut this entire time due to expecting Luigi to give up and let her die. After all, with all the tormenting she did to him, she deserved it. What reason did Luigi have to save her life? The princesses too, stared on silently with hope in their eyes accented with a hint of sadness, for it seemed clear what the best choice for himself would be. Luigi would have everything, so why would he give it all up just for them?

Luigi stared at the cure in his tiny and chubby hand after surveying the room. He knew what he had to do. Luigi shoved his fist containing the cure into his mouth and felt the pill dissolve, the bitter juices flowing down his throat. A warm feeling spread through Luigi, from his head to his toes, and he suddenly felt stronger and more mobile.

Bowser's face had nothing but shock on it. "B-but I offered everything that you ever wanted to you. You should have accepted!"

Luigi started to slowly grow in size and he jumped out of Bowser's arms and stood strongly on his own, glaring at Bowser.

"Dats wha you think, Bowsa," said two year old Luigi before another sudden growth spurt overtook him.

Luigi started to walk towards Starlow's cage. "You think it's only about reward," said a five year old Luigi as he drew closer to the cage.

"B-b-but that's where you're w-wrong," the seven year old Luigi that developed the iconic stutter began opening the latch on the cage, springing loose a grateful Star Sprite who instantly snuggled up to Luigi momentarily to show her gratitude.

"There's more to life than empty adoration!" twelve year old Luigi's voice was much louder and stronger and gaining in strength as he regained his years.

"And it's something you'll never understand!" Luigi was 16 and hit puberty, causing his voice to crack on every word, also causing him to get taller with every step as he began to walk towards the shocked Bowser that could only watch.

The acne-ridden 18 year old firmly gripped Bowser's tail. "No matter how hated I am now, no matter who hates me, no matter how much life sucks..." Luigi's voice was finally at its correct and final pitch and he faltered a second as a burst of strength returned to his arms.

Luigi began to mimic what he had heard Mario talk about doing when retelling the story of swinging Bowser by the tail, his 20 year old strength that was gaining by the second assisting. "There is no reason you can't be happy. I have all I need with a loving older brother and a small yellow buddy to assist me in improvement by pointing out my flaws." The swing reached its zenith and Luigi let go, flinging Bowser a record distance away, smacking him unconscious against the castle wall before he sank into the lava.

Luigi was 24 again and stood tall and strong. "It's all in how you look at it. I'm already adored as an adult. I have a loving older brother and great friends, which are all I need, and in that respect, all my dreams have already come true," Luigi finished as he rushed over to the others. With the help of Starlow, they quickly broke the lock and freed them.

Luigi was instantly mobbed by the princesses, Starlow, and Mario with giant hugs and that-was-so-sweet's. He truly did have all he needed and more. How could he not see it before?

"Uh, Luigi...," said Mario as he drew away from the hug.

"Yes Mario?"

"You might want to... I don't know... maybe put some clothes on."

Luigi's entire head went blood red from embarrassment as Daisy and Peach couldn't help but giggle as they averted their eyes, as well as Starlow as she turned a shade of orange.

"Aww, less than five minutes of being an adult and I'm already dealing with this again!" moaned Luigi.

"What was that 'again' supposed to mean?" asked Daisy.

"Let's leave it at college was pretty wild," Mario quickly butt in, remembering that particular party all too well with a shudder.

Daisy paused for a second. She just remembered, she wore her go karting outfit underneath her dress in hopes of doing some laps after the meeting! Thank goodness for convenient plot points! Daisy quickly whipped off her dress and slipped it over Luigi before he could protest.

"There we go!" said Daisy to a very embarrassed Luigi. "Problem solved!"

"But orange isn't my color, pink is..." murmured Luigi as he stared down at what he was wearing.

"Oh relax, the orange doesn't look half bad on you either," chimed Starlow.

And that is the story of how Luigi came into town wearing a dress.

 _X-EPILOGUE-X_

After the laughter died down from Luigi's outfit, the clamor calmed down and people went back to their business of what they were doing, ignoring the man in the dress. Luigi sighed, but also felt a good chunk of relief. Things were as they were meant to be once more. Luigi being the laughing stock or ignored, while Mario was the hero. It was just meant to be that way.

"Hey, Luigi?"

The sudden higher pitched feminine voice startled Luigi. "Yes?" asked Luigi as he turned to face Starlow.

"I just wanted to say... thank you. You saved my life after I was a jerk to you since we've met, you gave up what was considered the perfect life. I don't know how to thank you."

"Then don't. I don't need to live for praise and I think I lost sight of that, which started this in the first place."

Silence between the two rang out and they wordlessly decided to go on a walk around together. It was nice between the two of them as they just walked around without words or a destination in mind, just simple walking. It was after awhile of walking that Luigi decided to start doing an odd strutting walk.

"Wow, I still can't believe how comfortable this dress is. Maybe I should start wearing one more often!"

"Luigi, this day was really great up until you said that. How about we go to your house and you put on some real and normal clothes."

Before Luigi could respond that he was joking about the dress thing, he was already getting pushed along by Starlow towards his house. Starlow eventually stopped pushing and the pleasant walk resumed as the sunset began, casting long shadows. Strangely enough, Luigi didn't seem scared at all this time and started to whistle a creepy tune in an upbeat fashion.

"Hey Luigi, why aren't you-"

"Scared? I'm not scared right now because I'm just simply happy to be alive and happy to be with my friend right now."

Starlow looked around until she realized that she was the friend he spoke of. That reminded her of something that needed to be said.

"I'm sorry for always being a jerk to you, Luigi."

"It's alright. Let's just put this all behind us and accept this as a new start."

And the two went off into the distance, more adventures awaiting the newly formed friends.

THE END

 _Well this was quite an adventure. Please leave a review with your thoughts on the story. This is my first completed multi-chaptered story and I'm excited. Echoes of Yesterday has now become a collaboration between Rockster and I and it's in the making right now. I also am now taking writing commissions to where I can write you a story. For details, see my DA page. I have nothing else to say other than thank you for reading, so until next time, Norm out. And don't forget to never leave your drink cup unattended at college parties!_


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